Immortalize Your Image On a Toy

Christoph Brown is the Etch-A-Sketch Man and he’s amazing! He makes highly detailed drawings using an Etch-A-Sketch.

You remember the Etch-A-Sketch, don’t you? It’s that red box with something inside that lets you make pictures. But how does it work?

Inside, a pair of rails mounted at right angles, holds a stylus. Knobs on the front are hooked with a cable and pulley system to the rails. When you turn the knobs, the rails move the stylus. The stylus moves along the face. That movement creates a line in a mixture of extremely fine aluminum powder and beads that coat the inside of the face.

If you think this ingenious system is complicated, try drawing with the thing! Few people get past creating the basic crude letter or block shapes. It’s not an easy drawing system to master.

Christoph Brown is an exception. Not only that, he hires out for events. For about $175 he’ll sketch you from a photo, and yes, he can fix the image so it won’t disappear if you happen to shake your masterpiece.